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It has been reported that as many as one in four American adults has a criminal record — some 65 million people. NACDL is a leading national voice calling attention to this matter of significant public concern: the vast expansion in recent decades of the criminal law and its intended and unintended consequences in American society.

In addition to its ongoing work in courts, legislatures and the public square to combat the overcriminalization of conduct in U.S. society, NACDL is also focused on the consequences of conviction — specific legal barriers, generalized discrimination, and social stigma — which have likewise become more numerous and severe, more public, and more permanent. They affect jobs and licenses, housing, public benefits, voting rights, parental rights, interstate travel, and even volunteer opportunities. To this end, NACDL recently established the Task Force on Restoration of Rights and Status After Conviction to find out how legal mechanisms for relief fr

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